nAcciyAr tirumozhi XII– maRRu irundIrgaTku 1

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SrI:

SrI ANDAL samEta SrI ra’ngamannAr tiruvaDigaLE

SaraNam

 

nAcciyAr tirumozhi XII–

maRRu irundIrgaTku

 

pASuram 12.1 (twelfth tirumozhi - pASuram 1 maRRu

irundIrgaTku )

 

mathuraip purattu ennai azhaittuc cellu’ngaL

 

maRRu irundIrgatku aRiyalAgA mAdhavan enbadOr anbu

tannai

uRRu irundEnukku uraippadu ellAm UmaiyarODu SeviDar

vArttai

peRRu irundALai ozhiyavE pOip pErttu oru tAi il

vaLarnda nambi

mal porundAmal kaLam aDainda maduraip purattu ennai

uyttiDumin

 

A. From SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

 

You can’t understand the depth of love I have for

kaNNan. All the advice and consolation that you are

giving me saying I should be more patient and wait for

Him, is like a conversation that happens between a

deaf person and a dumb person.

mathurA is the dwelling place of kaNNan, who was born

to dEvaki but left her to live in nanda gOkulam and

grew up as yasOdA’s son, and bravely arrived at the

fighting grounds ahead of the boxers who were deputed

to kill Him, and waited to face them. The only

fruitful service you can do for me now is to take me

anywhere close to mathurA. I beg of you, please leave

me somewhere near mathurA.

 

B. Additional thoughts from SrimAn SaDagOpan:

 

This wonderful decad describes the heart rending plea

of ANDAL to Her Lord for samSlesham . All of the

cetanas’ hearts should experience this anubhavam that

gOdai is demonstrating to us. She starts

appropriately with vaDa mathurai in search of her

Lord. That is where it all started with His avatAram

inside a kArAgRham as the child of vasudEva and dEvaki

.. AyarpADi came next in His life ( orutti mahanAip

pirandu--). The second pAsuram therfore shifts (

amazingly ) to AyarpADi. The third pASuram says,

please take me to the gates of nanda gOpan. The fourth

pAsuram takes her mind to the banks of yamunai.

brindAvanam is the place, where nandagopan’s family

moved after pUtanA samhAram and other incidents, which

made the parents fear about staying in

gOkulam(AyarpADi). The fifth one takes her to yamunA

maDu , where kALiyan was conquered by kALinga

nardanan.The 8th and the 9th takes her to gOVardhanam

and dwArakA. Final pAsuram refers to SrIvaikuNTham.

There is a logic in the flow of ANDAL’s thoughts in

tracing Lord kRshNa’s life from His childhood to His

bAla leelA’s and then His life at a later stage at

dvArakA, and finally to His abode (“mama dhAmA”).

 

C. Additional thoughts from SrI PVP:

 

maRRu irundIrgaTku: “all of you, who are different

from me. sudarSanam SrI kRshNasvAmi iye’ngAr points

out that the difference between ANDAL and the rest is

that the others are willing to wait for Him to bless

them based on their efforts, whereas ANDAL cannot bear

to live any longer without Him; such is the intensity

of her devotion to Him.

 

irundIrgatku aRiyalAgA: Even though you are living in

the same place as me, still you will not be able to

assess what my mind is going through. My position is

like that of sanjayan in mahAbhAratam (uttara kANDam

68-5). dhRtarAshTra asks sanjayan: “I am as learned

in the SAstra-s as you are; I am as intelligent as

you are; and yet, it is only you who are able to

understand the truth behind things, and I always have

to learn the truth from you. Why is it so,

sa’njaya?” sa’njaya replies: “I do not cheat anyone;

I do not indulge in any act that is contrary to

dharma, and am pure in my nature. You try to

understand things based on the SAstra-s that you have

studied, whereas I try to understand based on SAstra-s

guided by devotion. Your position is like that of one

who tries to see things that are hidden to the eye,

using the eye as the means; my situation is that of

one trying to see the things hidden to the eye by

applying the collyrium (a’njanam) that reveals the

things that are hidden to the normal eye”. Just like

that, gOdai has the intense devotion to Him that

cannot let her be separated from Him, and her folks

are ordinary and are not able to understand or

appreciate this special relationship.

 

mAdhavan enbadOr anbu tannai: if I had fallen in love

with brahmacAri nArAyaNan, I might have reconciled to

my situation and consoled myself; but the One I desire

to be united with is mAdhavan - SrIman nArAyaNan –

the One whom lakshmi Herself chose. He is not just

the abode of Love, He is the personification of Love

itself. He is Supreme in every respect. nammAzhvAr

declares: “kOla malarp pAvaikku anbAgiya en anbEyO”

(tiruvAimozhi 10-10-7). He makes everyone fall in

love with Him, irrespective of whether they are

children, youths, adults, or older people, by

showering His love on them first. rAmAyaNam

(ayodhyAkANDam 17-16) extols rAma as the one who

bestows His love on the four castes and the people in

four stages of life like childhood, adolescence, youth

and old age and to all others; so, they all love Him

intensely in return.

 

“sarvEshAm hi sa dharmAtmA varNAnAm kurutE dayAm |

caturNAm hi vayah sthAnAm tEna tE tamanuvratA:

||

 

It is emperumAn’s nature to love His aDiyArgaL first

and create a love for Himself in their minds.

 

anbu tannai uRRu: it can be interpreted as “she wants

to reach mAdhavan who is the personification of love”,

or “She has matured into bhakti or devotion that is

the culmination of the intense love to Him”

(“niRandanUDu pukku enadu Aviyai niNRu ninRu urukki

uNginra” – tiruvAimozhi 5-10-1) – nammAzhvAr is

intensely suffering, and unable to bear that

suffering, at the thought of how much trouble

bhagavAn goes through for our sake - such is the

intensity of his devotion.

 

irundEnukku: “I am in a state where I cannot live

without Him, but I have no energy left to even walk to

His place; so I am staying fixed to this place”.

 

uraippadu ellAm; maRRu uraippadu ellAm – all the words

that you are all saying in order to keep me from

getting to Him, contrary to what I want.

 

UmaiyarODu SeviDar vArttai: People who are dumb are

limited in their ability to communicate by word of

mouth, and people who are deaf are limited in their

ability to hear. Since you all do not know my state,

you are unable to communicate meaningfully to me (or,

you are unqualified to talk to me), and so you are

like people afflicted with the limitation of being

dumb. Nothing that you say is getting through into my

ears because this is not what I want to hear, and so I

am like one who is deaf when you talk to me. So our

conversation is like a dumb person trying to verbally

communicate to a deaf person.

 

peRRu irundALai ozhiyavE: gOdai’s folks ask her: “How

can you say nobody knows your plight? He who caused

you to be in this plight should certainly know”. gOdai

responds: “He did not even care about His own mother’s

plight, and left her as soon as He was born. How would

He know about His lover’s plight?” dEvaki performed

intense penance to get this child; she gave birth to a

boy after much trouble. The boy whom she gave birth

to, left her on the day He was born.

 

pOip pErttu: just as the saying goes “peRRa manam

pittu” (SrI Krishnaswamy Iyengar), dEvaki stood with

tears rolling down her eyes as her child was leaving;

and what did kaNNan do? Without ever drinking His

mother’s milk even once, He left her (“piLLai manam

kal”).

 

pErttu oru tAi il vaLarnda: [“orutti maganAip piRandu

Or iravil orutti maganAi vaLarndu”] He grew up in

another mother’s house – yaSodA’s; While His own

mother, dEvaki, was grief-stricken that her child

parted from her, He just adopted yaSodA as His mother,

and let her tie Him up and beat Him up [“kaNNi nuN

SiruttAmbinAl kaTTuNNap paNNiya perumAyan”]. All

dEvaki could say was :: “tiru ilEn onRum peRRilEn –

ellAm deyva na’ngai yasOdai peRRALE” (perumAl

tirumozhi 7-5); and yasOdA enjoyed the ultimate

happiness (“yaSodai tollai inbattu iRudi kaNDAL” –

perumAL tirumozhi 7-8).

 

peRRu irundALai ozhiyavE pOip……… His natural tendency

is to hurt especially those who cannot live without

Him. kulasekhara AzhvAr in his UDal nilai says in

perumAL tirumozhi 6-4, “tAi mulaip pAlil amudu irukkat

tavazhndu taLar naDai iTTuc cenRu pEi mulai vAi vaittu

na’njai uNDu pittan enRE piRar Esa ninRAi”. yasOdai

is very particular in making sure that kaNNan drinks

her milk, which sustains His body. Making her wait in

sorrow (by not drinking her milk), childishly He goes

and drinks the milk from pUtanai, who came to destroy

Him. This led people to mock at Him as one who does

not know the difference between those who love Him and

those who are only bent on doing evil to Him.

 

nambi: Literally means “Eminent person among men”.

Here it seems ANDAL is suggesting that He is “nambi”

because He makes this indifference to those who love

Him as a special quality of His.

 

mal porundAmal kaLam aDainda: Instead of choosing to

unite with me and embrace me when I am here waiting

for Him to embrace me with love, He leaves me and goes

to embrace the fighters in mathurai. mal porundAmal

means “not being together with me”. Or, the words

could be read thus: mal porundA mal kaLam – meaning,

even before the mallargaL (fighters) came to the

fighting ground, He arrived there.

 

maduraip purattu ennai uyttiDumin: Before He

embraces the fighters’ bodies, please take me to vaDa

mathurai and leave me there so that I can go to Him

and embrace Him.

 

D. Additional thoughts from SrI UV:

 

maRRu irundIrgatku …. The love I have for Him is such

that without Him, I cannot live even for a second.

When periya pirATTi tried to end her life in asOka

vanam, the word sent to her by emperumAn helped her

sustain for at least a month. He is ArAda amudam; That

is why I am in love with that mAdhavan.

 

UmaiyarODu SeviDar vArttai: SrI PVP had interpreted

ANDAL’s position to that of a deaf person, and the

elders’ position to that of a dumb person. SrI UV

reverses the role, and interprets ANDAL as feeling

that the elders are like deaf people in not being able

to understand what she is trying to tell them, and she

is like a dumb person since she does not recognize

what they are talking (SrI UV remarks that a dumb

person does not talk, and does not recognize what

others talk).

 

So, ANDAL tells them: “Instead of wasting my time,

please take me close to His place, in mathurai, and

leave me anywhere in that vicinity. If you object

saying – how can we leave you in such a far away

place? How will we, who are like your mothers, live

separated from you, I have the answer for you. He

left His mother and went to another place as soon as

He was born; I, who am in love with Him, can I not be

separated from my mothers now that I am old? Didn’t

His mother have life? Didn’t she have milk? Why did

He leave her? Even that mother told Him that all she

wishes is His welfare and even though she doesn’t have

the bhAgyam to see Him, all she cares for is that He

is safe and well. In the same way, you should all

seek my welfare and growth. Later on, when He is

reunited with His parents in mathurA, I might have the

bAghyam of seeing you all and living together also.

He only behaved the way He did in order to do good to

His parents, being such a kalyANa guNa pUrNan; I am

also behaving like Him.

 

mathuraip puRam: When He left AyarpADi and reached

mathurA, He got off at the outskirts of mathurA. So

also, you can leave me at the outskirts of mathurai,

and I will find my way to Him.

 

mal porundA mal kaLam aDainda: When He returned to

mathurA frm AyarpADi, at least then, did He go

straight to see His mother? Far from it. He went to

the mal kaLam – fighting ground instead. “mal porundA

mal kaLam” can be enjoyed in several ways: a) He was

there even before the designated boxers had arrived;

b) The fighting ground was not appropriate because the

designated boxers were professionals, and kaNNan was a

little kid, and so there was no “poruttam” or match in

this fight; c) after the fighting was over, still it

was not a fair match because the designated boxers

were so much inferior to kaNNan, that there was no

“poruttam” anyway. d) Before the boxers were going

to have a chance to be in an embrace with kaNNan

during the fight, godai wanted to go and embrace Him.

 

maduraip puRattu: SrI UV feels the correct pATham

should be maduraip purattu “in the city of mathurA”,

rather than “maduraip puRattu” – in the vicinity of

the city of mathurA [note the difference in the

spelling of the mellinam and vallinam for “ra” and

“Ra”, which results in the two different meanings].

 

Because of her pEr avA (great fondness) for kaNNan,

even though kaNNan lived during His vibhava

incarnation as Lord kRshNa there, gOdai thinks that

kaNNan is still living in mathurai, AyarpADi etc.

That is the spirit of this tirumozhi.

 

Abbreviations:

------------------

PVP= SrI periyavAccAn piLLai

PBA= SrI prativAdi bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr

UV = SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr

 

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyeti samarpayAmi.

 

aDiyEn,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

 

 

 

 

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